In Minneapolis this week, President Barack Obama acknowledged that gun-control proposals “may not be able to prevent every massacre or random shooting. No law or set of laws can keep our children completely safe.”

But he under-emphasized the fact that an example of what is working — the Minneapolis Blueprint for Action model of youth initiatives — isn’t strictly a “gun control” program.

“You launched a series of youth initiatives that have reduced the number of young people injured by guns by 40 percent — 40 percent,” the president said. “So when it comes to protecting our children from gun violence, you’ve shown that progress is possible.”

The Blueprint for Action, begun in 2008 in response to killings earlier in the decade, takes a comprehensive approach to youth violence, said John Stiles, a spokesman for Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak. The approach includes gun issues, he said, but the program “uses a public health approach as opposed to solely a policing approach.” Its goals are to connect young people with mentors, intervene “at the first sign youth are at risk for violence,” help “restore youth who have gone down the wrong path” and “unlearn” the culture of violence in the community.

The National League of Cities in 2009 recognized the effort, which relies on partnerships with schools, foundations, businesses and community and youth organizations, as one of the most innovative models for preventing youth violence.

The president’s plan, including expansion of background checks for gun owners, restoring the ban on military-style assault weapons and making it harder for criminals and people with mental illness to get guns, seems to ignore good work such as that under way in Minneapolis. So do proposals on similar topics before the Minnesota House Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee.

An evidence-based focus on what actually works will help in the difficult debate ahead. It will help lawmakers weigh whether proposals could have prevented the deaths at Sandy Hook, at the theater in Colorado or in the workplace shooting in September in Minneapolis. It will help weigh evidence from big cities like Chicago and New York with sustained high rates of crime, despite strict gun laws. It will help us deal with the tradeoffs that balance gun-control proposals against essential American freedoms.

The president recognizes a key to the debate ahead: that “there are going to be regional differences and geographic differences.”

In Minnesota, where some surveys say guns are in more than half of households, the Pioneer Press’ Megan Boldt reported, there’s a divide between urban and rural perspectives.

Four urban-suburban mayors, for example — Chris Coleman of St. Paul, Peter Lindstrom of Falcon Heights, Don Ness of Duluth and Rybak of Minneapolis — have joined Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the organization that sponsored a Super Bowl commercial supporting background checks.

The divide means “we just come from different cultures when it comes to guns,” Rep. Paul Marquart, a Democrat from Dilworth, said in Boldt’s report. “Where I come from, my experience has been good,” said Marquart, who is endorsed by the NRA. “Guns are used for hunting and target shooting and protection. Those in the urban areas might have seen more of the bad sides, with crime and gun violence.”

Marquart said he is open to making changes to gun laws if they actually do something to curb gun violence. He says addressing the root problems, such as gaps in the mental-health system, have proven results, while proposals such as limiting magazine capacities or banning automatic rifles do not.

“We can’t just do something because we think it will work,” Marquart said. “We have to have evidence. And I’m not convinced that the gun-control methods I’ve seen will actually accomplish what they’re set out to do.”

In the debate ahead, let’s make sure our desire to do something about gun violence — with compassion for the victims and respect for the Constitution — results in doing the right thing. We can’t do the right thing, though, without focusing on what works.

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